College Gap Year Benefits

I first began hearing about the possibility of a gap year between high school and college when Malia Obama (Former President Obama’s daughter) announced that she would be taking a gap year before attending college. I have sense had many friends consider taking a gap year and some of them have gone for it. The study of the benefits of a gap year is very interesting because there are so many factors that play into a successful gap year. These factors include what you do on your gap year, how much of your gap year is academically focused, when you take your gap year (some people take a gap year once they have completed a few years of college or an undergraduate degree), and where you go. Other things that can contribute to whether or not a student takes a gap year can be socioeconomic status, vocational and professional plans, as well as GPA and standardized test scores.

Barnds, W. Kent. "The Gap Year Gain." Journal of College Admission, vol. 233, Fall2016, pp.

It talks about how gap years, as opposed to years off, are geared towards furthering an education of some kind. There is a program mentioned that helps plan and organize academic but adventurous gap years for students between high school and college. While these gap years are academically beneficial and can help with college acceptance after the gap year, college acceptance is not the point in taking a year off. According to Tomer, the point of a gap year is to gain focus and academic ambition to face the college years in a successful way. Four contributors to a successful gap year are mentioned in the article. They are: cultural emersion, community service, learning, and travel. I agree that these four things can contribute to a beneficial gap year and I plan to use them in my essay along with the three things mentioned in Barnds’s article. These will help strengthen my argument about what makes a gap year